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Meet G-Unit, or as we lovingly call him, “Gandalf the White” (not because he’s a bit long in the tooth, but because he’s the wizard of developing the coolest betting & trading platform on the planet). Well, Gandalf didn’t always conjure up epic and magical code. He was born in Napoli, Italy, where he claims there is absolutely no mafia, so don’t even ask (the dons were very surprised when he graduated with a very wizardly degree in economics, after which he was sworn to secrecy on the whole mafia thing). In the spirit of thoughtful team interviews that allow our players and guests to take a dive into the world of betting, trading, and social games, we present our first look into the life of one of the dedicated people who make it all happen:

What was your proudest moment?
Birth of my baby girl Chiara

What is your second proudest moment?
Joining the betillion family

How did you get into the gambling industry?
I moved to the UK back in 2002. Offered a job at betfair. I had no idea who they were and what gambling was

What is the most interesting thing about gambling, according to you?
The professionals. They do not gamble, They are very much like traders in the city. They follow up rumors, they check stats, they try to make a strategy. Luck factor is for the average Joe

What are you working on now?
Re-engineering the current bet.tra.de platform (on which betillion is based). We’re moving from the typical start up monolith approach to SOA

Why is it important?
We need to be resilient, flexible, robust, and scalable for the change to come: horizontally and vertically. Low latency is not yet an issue yet, but we’re already working to address it when the game will be used for trading purposes by gazillions of users

How do you know the founders of betillion?
Through a trusted contact with whom I used to work in two different companies

Why do you buy into the betillion concept? Why is it special?
betillion is a completely different concept from traditional gambling games. It brings two elements. First, it allows for dynamic betting, which is very much luck based, comprising the very core of the app that revolves around trading said bets. The second aspect is very interesting. I still remember the study conducted by Stiglitz about the importance of information asymmetry. The game would level the field, as everyone would have exactly the same information available in real time (something that traditional games fail to offer).

What’s up for the future?
Making the betillion platform the envy of the gambling industry

Do you plan to buy any private islands off the coast of Dubai when betillion takes off and is wildly successful?
I was thinking of buying the Silverstone circuit, so I can keep my bike there and ride around the track whenever I like.

What do you wish you knew before you started working on betillion?
I knew it was going to be a challenge. But this is more than a challenge. It’s like a journey to the center of the earth by Jules Verne.

We are proud to have Gandalf on the team, and spearheading the betillion betting and trading social game, but if you ever want to hear more on our progress, or his work, please don’t hesitate to contact us through this website. As always, we are undergoing Beta testing of the betting and trading platform, and we encourage you to register to try the game during this exciting phase. Please visit http://www.betillion.com, or visit our Facebook and Twitter pages for real time updates.

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According to the Telegraph, the betting industry’s take during the two-week Olympic Games in London this year will exceed that in Beijing 20 times over (maybe because China can’t cheat as easily this time, so the betting is more fair! Ha!).

Interestingly, over 3 million people will take the plunge in the world’s oldest social activity, betting, and place their first ever bet on an athlete or event in the London Olympic. And betting activity is on the rise. What was the most popular Olympics event? The biggest draw for Betfair, the world’s largest internet betting exchange, was the men’s 100 meter final.

During the event over 19,000 individual users placed bets on the outcome of the race. Usain Bolt was responsible for more than one record that day! Overall, Betfair saw slightly under 100,000 customers making bets during the two weeks, a record number for the firm.

Betting holds a special place in gamesmanship, and we hope this tradition continues.

What does a betting and trading game have to say about Bingo Friedzy, Facebook’s first online gambling application that uses real money? Well, as an aspiring game in a similar space, we are really excited!

“Real-money gaming is a popular and well-regulated activity in the UK and we are allowing a partner to offer their games to adult users on the Facebook platform in a safe and controlled manner,” Facebook said in a statement, according to Reuters.

These are incredibly progressive words from a company that has played it safe since its inception in 2006. With only 30% of its revenue generated by non-gambling games, an early foray into the real-money playing may be the push that Facebook needs to assuage investors’ uncertainty about the company’s revenue-generating prowess.

There is no doubt, Zynga’s Poker and Slot Machine games will soon follow, and the gaming giant has shared this ambition explicitly (according to the Financial Times). Both Zynga and Facebook struggle to support expectations of analysts in terms of revenue, and online gambling presents the perfect opportunity.

This move is not desperate, but rather calculated and forward-looking.

Dear world, the time has come to unveil our awesome game to a select few betting enthusiasts – if you would like to be considered for the next testing group as we make this betting game a success, please sign up on our landing page, http://www.betillion.com.

Mariya Nikiforova is a Wharton MBA focusing on management strategy. Her background is in lead generation online marketing. We’re proud to publish extended interview with Wharton eClub (you go girl):

What is the significance of online marketing for a brand?

Online marketing is essential for every brand, be it a behemoth like Coca Cola or a small startup like betillion. The purpose of online marketing is to engage the user on all levels of the traditional sales funnel – through raising awareness, satisfying interest, affecting decisions, and driving specific user actions. However, the growing social interconnectedness and innovative customer analytics inherent to online marketing make it a formidable rival to traditional media by extending brand presence beyond 30 seconds of air time or print ads.

Companies will continue to invest in TV advertising over the next 5 years, but investment in digital advertising is rising at a much higher rate (Source: eMarketer). Yes, online marketing is increasingly more significant, and will continue to grow for years to come.

What are the various types of online marketing and how do I know which one is right for my startup?

Online marketing has grown infinitely more complicated, and basic search engine marketing and optimization are no longer adequate. Advertisers and brands can utilize a variety of platforms, search engines, devices, and cross-media channels. However, I found that it is much more effective to seek a deeper understanding of the behavior of your target audience than to invest in a specific medium.

For example, is your audience mainly male or female? Women are 30% more active on social networks then men, and make over 80% of discretionary purchases. They are also nearly twice as likely to make a purchase online as men. Browsing habits cannot be simply described with age demographics, but rather by lifestyle. A soccer mom will visit sites that are vastly different from a career-climbing woman of the same age, thus it’s important to understand marketing from the perspective of user behavior.

That said, there is no silver bullet, and online marketing strategy will depend heavily on the goals of the startup at a specific point in time. Are you trying to generate buzz? Do you need sales leads? Are you building your brand? Are you addressing an urgent PR issue?

Today, marketing is inseparable from the social media conversation, which is why so many more companies are open to integrating specific social strategies into their marketing mix. Take the Olympics for example, a huge advertising opportunity where companies paid upwards of $300,000 for a 30 second spot. Interestingly, the Pew centre found that 31 per cent of Americans aged 18 to 29 had followed Olympics coverage on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter – it makes one wonder how companies could ever pass on this kind of exposure (over 50% of advertisers made no mention of social media, while only 10% provided this information in advertising, according to the MarketingPilgrim).

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You must be wondering what it all means. Why are we here? What’s the point of life? Who am I?

We won’t provide you with any spiritual guidance of transcendental illumination (we’re just a humble betting and trading game), but we will tickle your fancy with our poll on what the hell “betillion” means. So without further ado…